This is extra sad for me to read considering I inherited a then 13-year-old, cranky Tortie cat when my mother died. I've known that cat since I was a bratty high schooler way back when she was a kitten clawing the crap out of my ankles. She's 15 now and spends most of her time sleeping and complaining, seems like a decent life to me. She mourned my mom so I can only imagine the woman in this story wanted to save any of her future cats the stress of losing their owner. Or was completely out of her mind.
Bank goes to court to save cat from being euthanized:

For months, Boots, an 11-year-old cat from a suburb of Chicago, had been on "kitty death row." Her owner died last December, and a 20-year-old will stipulated any cats the woman owned at the time of her death be euthanized. But trust officers at Fifth Third Bank in charge of, um, executing the will, couldn't bring themselves to carry out the request. So they went to court. The bank asked a judge to set aside the provision, arguing that killing Boots "would violate public policy to euthanize a healthy housecat where an appropriate shelter has been identified." The judge agreed, and the bank was able to place her at a no-kill shelter.

Yay for these trust officers for doing the right thing.

One commenter on the original MSN post goes so far as to say the bank and court suck for violating this woman's last will and testament:

This court basically ruled that your *last will and testament* means nothing.

Yes, this crazy person who wanted to die with their cat should have been given some counsel from their legal representative about the direction of having the cat killed upon their own death. Suprise......a lawyer didn't do the right thing.

Where does this bank stop in their execution of the next will to pass through their office? If this bank is to be the executor of my will.....I would be a bit worried now.

WTF, you can't put "kill living things" in your will and expect those wishes to be honored. I can't write "oh and End the Fed" in my will and that's it, the world owes me that final batshit crazy request. It's not some postmortem wish list you write to the universe, it's your last binding contract with humanity. Killing a perfectly fine, loyal cat is not OK.

As a cat owner, I can totally understand what this lady was thinking, it's still not alright.